Since I do not have my own classroom right now, I have to rely on my generous cooperating teachers. However, for this assignment I was unable to actually perform the running records. The following is a summary of what a running record is and how to perform one.

To begin the process of giving a running record to students the teacher must begin by selecting the appropriate level to test the student. This level should be about one level above the student’s independent reading level. The teacher should make sure he/she has the “transcript” of the text being read by the student. This is a copy of the story being read with room for recording miscues and attempts. The teacher will record the student’s miscues in two different ways, by making the transcript and by audio recording.

The important miscue markings include:

Substitution: when a substitution is made the teacher writes the miscues directly over the text.

·       If the substitution is not a real word the teacher writes a dollar sign ($) and the word said over the text.

·       If the substitution is over many words the teacher should bracket over the words and write what was said over that.

Omission: recorded by circling the word left out

Partial omission: circle the part skipped

Transposition: When words are reversed in order the teacher should use a sidewise “s” like a lasso around transposed words.

Repetition or regression: Phrases or words that are repeated. The teacher should underline the repeated word and attach a circled “r” to the end of the line. If the repetition happens multiple times, underline again.

Insertion: When a student adds one or more words, use a caret to denote the words added.

Correction: a miscue that is corrected is marked with a circled “c” and underline what was corrected.

Unsuccessful correction: underline the word with the letters “uc” circled next to the word with an arrow above pointing to the list of words attempted.

Pausing and intonation: If the student pauses between words, the letter “p” should be placed between the words along with the number of seconds paused.

Intonation: If the student reads words correctly but skips punctuation causing intonation changes, the teacher should circle what was skipped.

Checking comprehension: First the teacher should ask the student to retell the story in his/her own words. Second, the teacher should ask the student guided questions about the text, marking all answers.

Analyzing Running Record: 

·       The teacher should check the miscues for graphic similarities.

·       Check the syntactic and semantic cues asking these three questions

o   Does this sound syntactically correct?

o   Is this sentence semantically correct?

o   Did the students reading of the sentence change it’s meaning?

After the reading comprehension and miscues have been analyzed, record all information gathered and convert into a percentage.

 

Word Reognition/Sociopsycholinguistic

Directions:

Label each activity (L) for learning/word recognition or (A) for acquisiton/sociopsycholinguistic view.

Some activities can have both labels. Be prepared to explain your choices.

 

The students:

 

__L   look up words in the dictionary to write definitions

___A _make a Venn diagram to compare two stories

___L__practice sounding out words

__L___read in round~robin fashion

__L___correct peers when they make a mistake during reading

__A/L__identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound

___A__group cards with classmates' names by a criterion on such as first or last letter

__A___write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound

_L____ask the teacher how to spell any word they don't know

__L___read a language experience story they have created with the teacher

__A___work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences

__A/L___divide words into syllables

__L___on a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound

__A___make alphabet books on different topics

 

The teacher:

 

_L____pre-teaches vocabulary

_L____does a shared reading with a big book

_L___makes sure that students read only books that fit their level

_L____has students segment words into phonemes

_A____writes words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling of difficult words

_A____asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter

_L____uses decodable texts

_A____sets aside time for SSR (sustained silent reading) each day teaches Latin and Greek roots

_A___has students meet in literature circles

_L____conducts phonics drills

_L____chooses predictable texts

_A____teaches students different comprehension strategies does a picture walk of a new book

__A/L___uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills

 

Word Recognition/learning seems to be about teaching the basics, more fundamentalist teaching. This approach is all about pre-teaching and skills based learning. This type of teaching/learning fits into a more traditional setting. The Sociopsycholinguistic/Acquisition view is more independent and student based. This student-based view allows students to gain understanding, use background knowledge and work on the basic principals of reading and writing later.

 

Blog #5

The first children’s book I reviwed was The Very Hungry Caterpiller, by Eric Carle. I chose this because it is a familiar book to many children, has a cute story with colorful stories. It is also used as part of an author study in many kindergarten/first grade classrooms.

From the very first page I realized that this might be difficult for comprehension with ELL students. The first page read, “In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.” The phrase “in the light of the moon” may be a difficult concept for the students to understand. The picture is helpful because it show the moon as a large part of the picture.  The other aspects of the story that may be difficult are toward the end of the story. The caterpiller eats a lot and gets fat, bulids a cacoon, “He stays inside for more than two weeks. Then nibbled a hole in the cacoon, pushed his way out and…” The concept of time and the scientific nature of the cacoon may be hard to comprehend.

The schema could be taught by introducing this story with other examples of caterpillers turning into butterflies, introducing the vocabulary words prior to reading the story, and giving examples by using different pictures.

The second children’s book I reviewed was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin and John Archambault. I chose this book because it is a useful tool for teaching the alphabet. This may be difficult because students may have a hard time seeing the humor behind it. The idea that the letters are staying in order but that it is playful story. Phrases like “stubbed-toe E and patched-up F,” may be to abstract. As well as the silly phrases like “ally-oop” and skoodle doot.”

This could be introduced as a song. The teacher could play the song and show the book as a “big book” to the class. If the sing the story as the teacher points to the letters, this may help. Plus this can be introduced as a phonics lesson about sounds and nonsense words.

Blog #4 Metacognitive look at text...

“Take a metacognitive look at how you decode unfamiliar text,” this was really hard, much harder then I thought it would be. I went into the task thinking; okay I have a good grasp on language as a whole I bet I can decode a different language pretty well. Boy was I wrong! I began with a Spanish newspaper. I am an avid newsreader and figured this would be a good place to start. I understood next to nothing. I understood obvious things like political names, locations, and words that were similar to English, but that was really it. I was able to use the pictures to help with some of the content, I think. I read the front page many times and became increasingly frustrated with each attempt. How powerful. This is so basic yet extremely important as a teacher.

I then scaled down until I got to a level that I could understand. This level was that of a toddler. I understood repetitive picture books in which the pictures directly correlated to the text. For example, everything on the page was blue, so I figures the word “azul” meant blue. The strategies I used were pictures, trying to find a connection to a word in English (or any other language I may have recognized), repetition.

The implications as a teacher to me would be the need for repetition. As I read on I picked up on words as they were repeated to me. I found it helpful to have pictures, much like a toddler would with a picture book. This also served as further proof to me that the more you read, the more you understand. ELL students need to be given more opportunities, possibly a longer block.